Rodriguez climbs to stage win

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Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) grabbed a thrilling victory at the Vuelta after a dramatic duel with Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) atop the Peña Cabarga, but the story of the day was the crash that forced race leader Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) to abandon the race. His vacated red jersey passed on to the shoulders of Nibali, who limited his losses in the finale to preserve a four-second lead over Rodriguez in the general classification.

In the wake of Anton's crash, Nibali seemed destined to take the red jersey and on the final climb was determined to earn it. He put in a splendid attack 1.5km from the line, and for an instant, looked every inch the Vuelta's winner-elect. Within moments however, the illusion of a Nibali procession between here and Madrid was crushed, as Rodriguez caught the Italian and then launched a vicious attack of his own 800 metres from the line.

In Andorra midweek, it was Rodriguez who collapsed in the final push to the summit, but this time around, the Catalan timed his effort to perfection. "I didn't make the same mistake as in Andorra," he said at the finish. I waited till the last moment to take my chance and make the difference."

Once he made his burst, Rodriguez quickly danced clear and his lead began to open exponentially as Nibali began to flounder even as the road flattened out towards the line. To his credit, the Liquigas man fought hard to limit his losses and 20 seconds after an ecstatic Rodriguez took the win, the exhausted Nibali crossed the line just ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) On the brink of collapse he may have been, but he did just enough to take the overall lead, just four seconds ahead of Rodriguez.

Nibali was ultimately pleased with his day's work. "I tried to follow my own rhythm and I'm hoping to hold on the leader's jersey in the days to come," he said afterwards. He was keen in particular to pay tribute to his team and believes they can carry the weight of his jersey. "We have a young team, but a powerful one, and I believe that along with my directeurs sportifs, we can control the race," he claimed.

Sportingly, Nibali also took time to remember the fallen race leader. "I only heard about it when I was on the podium," he said. I stayed concentrated and didn't realise that I was the leader. While I'm deeply sorry for Igor, I'm happy for what's happened to me, although I would have preferred to have taken the jersey in a different way."

For his part, Rodriguez recognises that while today's finish was tailor-made for his punchy characteristics, tomorrow's long climb to the legendary Lagos de Covadonga might just be more suited to his Italian adversary. "Tomorrow I'll have to be careful," he said. "I'll watch Nibali, but not just him. Several riders can still win the Vuelta."

Certainly, the overall classification was shaken up by a dramatic day's racing. Ezequiel Mosquera now lies just 50 seconds off the overall lead in third, alongside Xavier Tondo (Cervelo). The increasingly-impressive Nicolas Roche (AG2R) is now in fifth overall, at 2:11, while Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank), though not quite at his best, is getting stronger, and is a solid sixth overall, a further second behind.

The crash

One man who can't win the Vuelta is Anton. With just over 6.5km to go, as the riders battled for position ahead of the short and sharp heave to the line, the unfortunate Anton came a cropper (suffered misfortune - ed.) and crashed heavily. At first it appeared as though he had touched wheels with his teammate Egoi Martinez, although it later emerged that he may simply have hit a pothole. In any case, with the peloton screaming towards the foot of the climb at speeds in excess of 65kph, the end result was the same: Anton and Martinez were left spread-eagled on the tarmac and out of Vuelta.

As Anton gingerly took to his feet it was obvious that he was in difficulty, his red jersey torn to pieces. Meanwhile Martinez lay motionless on the ground and Euskaltel-Euskadi's Vuelta dreams were in tatters. While the bunch continued inexorably towards the final climb, Martinez was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone, while a battle-scarred Anton sat into a team car nursing a suspected broken elbow. Caisse d'Epargne's Marzio Bruseghin was also caught up in the accident and lost all hopes of a high overall placing, although he did at least make it to the finish.

"I crashed alone. I think I hit a hole or an obstacle," Anton said afterwards. "I stood up and saw blood all over the place and I didn't know where I was or what was going on. Instinctively I tried to get back on my bike and I realized my right arm couldn't bend."

The realisation that his Vuelta was over was crushing. "Our team doctor came straight away," he said. "He touched my arm and said, 'Forget about it, it's broken.'"

Stage winner Rodriguez sympathised with his compatriot Anton. "It's a pity that his Vuelta is ending like this," he said. "I didn't see the crash, I just heard the noise. Everyone wanted to get a good position before the climb. It was very fast, I didn't know the leader was down."

The Caisse d'Epargne ambush

The early part of the stage was dominated by a three-man breakaway made up of Niki Terpstra (Milram) and Garmin-Transitions duo David Millar and David Zabriskie. Terpstra began the move when he slipped clear of a seven-man break after 35km. Within 15km, he'd built up a lead of 3:30 and at this point, Millar and Zabriskie decided to bridge across. Together, the trio built up a maximum lead of 12:55 on the Portillo de Lunada climb, but that gap tumbled under impetus from Caisse d'Epargne.

Bereft of one top-level overall contender, the Spanish team decided to engage in a spot of guerrilla warfare on the road to Peña Cabarga, first setting an infernal tempo on the Alto del Caracol, before sending first David Arroyo and then Luis Leon Sanchez up the road in a bid to test Euskaltel-Euskadi. While they deserved full marks for invention, the flat roads between the Caracol and the final climb meant that Sanchez and his breakaway companion Aleksander Kolobnev (Katusha) were never going to be able to stay clear.

Ultimately, their move served only to doom the breakaway up front as their gap was down to just 1:30 when Anton crashed. By that stage Zabriskie had already sat up and his Garmin teammate Millar was forced to give best to Terpstra as the climbing began in earnest.

The final push

On the final climb, David Garcia (Xacobeo-Galicia) was the first to attack, while Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) drove the dwindling group of favourites for de facto race leader Vincenzo Nibali. As the group was whittled down to just 10 riders inside the final two kilometres, Nibali decided to make his move, ripping past Garcia and opening up a gap. Rodriguez found the energy to respond, however, and bridged ahead of the red kite.

Meanwhile, Ezequiel Mosquera was the best of the rest, although Nicolas Roche was performing heroics a little further back, dragging David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Fränk Schleck and Xavier Tondo with him in pursuit. Ultimately, the group fragmented as the finish line reared into view, and given the levels of fatigue on show, it seems clear that there will be further and more decisive changes in the coming days.

For now, however, the stage is set for a Nibali-Rodriguez battle on the Lagos de Covadonga, while the curtain falls on the unfortunate Igor Anton, the tragic hero of this dramatic Vuelta's opening act.

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